Tied with “I’m not a witch” was BP CEO Tony Hayward’s “I’d like my life back” to reporters six weeks after the BP oil spill:

Ever since 2006, when the original Yale Book of Quotations was published, Shapiro puts together an annual list of the year’s top ten quotes “that are indicative of the mood of the country or that have become famous in the media… quotes that are famous, important or revealing of the spirit of the times. The quotes aren’t necessarily the most eloquent or admirable.”

This year, he toldThe New Haven Register, “It was not pleasant dealing with this material,” mostly because the most notable quotes of this year were “generally polarizing, fairly harsh. Some would say they are extreme.”

So how did witchcraft denial come to lead the crop? By its absurdity. “It was such a remarkable unconventional quote to be a part of political discourse,” Shapiro said.

“Shapiro noted that the top quotes stemmed from two of the biggest news stories of the year,” the AP reported, “the oil spill and the emergence of the tea party.”

What news-breaking articulation did Christine O’Donnell and Tony Hayward beat out this year? Here are the other eight:

3. Airline passenger John Tyner to a TSA worker: “If you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested.”

6. Sharron Angle in a radio interview: “I hope that’s not where we’re going, but you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies. They’re saying: My goodness, what can we do to turn this country around?”

7. Nancy Pelosi to National Association of Counties: “We have to pass the [health care] bill so you can find out what it is.”

8. LeBron James in a TV broadcast: “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.”

9. Christine O’Donnell in a senatorial debate: “You’re telling me that the separation of church in state is found in the First Amendment?”

10. Gordon Brown on a voter he met: “They should never have put me with that woman…She was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour.”

On President Obama not making the list, Shapiro said this: “He’s proven to be surprisingly unquotable. He doesn’t seem to come up with any good sound bites.” I beg to differ on that one. I’m still quite a fan of what Obama says he and John Boehner have in common:

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I was always told to think before you speak, its amazing how many supposedly "important people" don't do this... in some cases I'm not sure they ever think, but in some of these instances the speaker must have some intelligence and common sense to get where they have in life...